The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, March 05, 2004, Page 8, Image 8
8 THE GAMECOCK ♦ Friday, March 5,2004 _ ,
_ Game.Scheduie
-V /X ~m-X r II /''"NJ MEN’S TENNIS vs. Kentucky, 2 p.ir
1/ \ I If I 1L 1 WOMEN’S TENNIS at Kentucky, 4 p.m.
Contact I " I I 1—< I MEN’S AND WOMEN’S SWIMMING in Bulldog Invitational
Story ideas? Questions? Comments? I I VI I ILf WOMEN’S GOLF in LSU/Cleveland Golf Classic
E-mailusatgamecocksports@gwm.sc.edu ■ 1 1 at Baton Rouge, La.
Men’s.basketball *
USC seeks
momentum
for tourney
BY JAIME DOWNS
THE GAMECOCK
Saturday the USC men’s bas
ketball team will take on the
Tennessee Volunteers in its final
regular season game, hoping close
out the season with a win and en
ter next weekend’s SEC touma-.
ment on a lygh note
Without center Rolando
Howell, who is out for the rest of
the season with a fractured wrist,
the Gamecocks are going to have
to step it up a notch to ensure a
victory. .
The Gamecocks are 21-8 over
all, 8-7 in the SEC. A victory over
Tennessee could help them earn
♦ MEN’S, SEE PAGE 9
SEC Standings
All statistics are current as of March
4,2004.
EASTERN CONF. OVERALL
Kentucky 12-3 22-4
Florida 9-6 18-8
USC 8-7 21-8
Vanderbilt8-719-7
Georgia- 6-9 14-12
Tennessee 6-9 14-12
WESTERN CONF. OVERALL
Mississippi State 13-2 24-2
LSU 8-7 18-8
Alabama _ 8-7 16-10
Arkansas _• 4-11 13-13
Auburn 4-11 12-14
Ole Miss 4-11 12-14
PHOTO BY JOHNNY HAYNES/THE GAMECOCK
Forward Olga Gritsaeva had 13 points and nine rebounds.
Disappointing season
ends for USC women
BY BRAD MOSELEY
THE GAMECOCK
The USC women’s basketball
team wrapped up its season
Thursday night as they lost to
the Georgia Lady Bulldogs in the
first round of the SEC
Tournament, 73-42.
“I think this is one of the
toughest seasons I have had as a
coach,” USC coach Susan
Walvius said. “We have a very
young basketball team. We only
have two seniors and two sopho
mores. Both sophomores have
been injured this year. We have
a big group of freshman with a
lot of potential.”
The Gamecocks started out
strong, scoring first and j umping
out to a 6-2 lead. Georgia would
soon wake up, however, using five
early Gamecock turnovers to get
back in the game. The Lady
Bulldogs didn’t look back. By half
time, the Lady Bulldogs led 37-19.
Georgia won the battle of the
boards, 39-31, despite USC hav
ing out-rebounded Georgia in
their first meeting earlier in the
season. The Gamecocks also
turned the ball over 21 times.
Two highlights for the
Gamecocks were freshmen Iva
Sliskovic and Larissa Kulcar,
who led the Gamecocks for most
of the game. Sliskovic scored 14
points on 6-12 shooting. Seniors
Cristina Ciocan and Kelly
Morrone were shut down offen
sively in the first half, going 0-4
and 0-1, respectively. Morrone
tried to make a little noise to start
the second half as she helped lead
the Gamecocks to a 5-0 rim. She
couldn’t get much going after
that. Ciocan also had a tough
night, finishing with eight points
and 3-of-9 shooting from the field.
“Cristina has had a great ca
reer at South Carolina and so has
Kelly Morrone,” USC assistant
coach Michelle Marciniak said.
Another small victory for the
Gamecocks was the quiet night
of Georgia’s senior center,
Christi Thomas. Thomas was re
cently awarded first team All
SEC honors.
“One of our main objectives
was to take Christi Thomas out
the game, and we did that,”
Marciniak said.
Unfortunately it seemed that
Thomas’ quiet performance only
boosted the game of her team
mates, Alexis Kendrick and
Janese Hardrick, who led the
Lady Bulldogs in scoring.
The Gamecocks, desperate to
pull off the upset, used seemingly
every defensive set they could
think of, going from a box and
one to a 2-3 and from a 3-2 to man
to-man, but nothing would work.
The Gamecocks also tried trap
ping the Bulldogs with full and
half court presses. The traps did
create Georgia turnovers, but in
the end the 45 percent Lady
Bulldog shooting proved too
much for the Gamecocks.
Comments on this story?E-mail
gamec.icksports@gwm.sc.edu
PHOTO BY MARK SCHILLING/THE GAMECOCK
Forward Kerbrell Brown launches the ball in the face of a
Kentucky player during Wednesday’s game.
Carolina cannot
match tough teams
Kentucky did it again. In what
could have been a great win for
the USC men’s basketball team
heading into the season finale on
Saturday, the Wildcats shot their
way past the
Gamecocks. But
focusing on the
fact that it was
Kentucky that
beat Carolina so
soundly is not
the way to go.
Instead, under
BRAD SENKIW standing why
Fourth-year the crew from
print Lexington
journalism bashed usc>s
student , ...
head m is more
important.
Plain and simple, the Gamecocks
lack the ability to pull out a needed
win against a highly ranked oppo
nent. It was obvious against
Mississippi State and just as clear
against Kentucky. With that being
said, it’s not a knock on what head
coach Dave Odom has done with
this group of young players. I’ve
been to a couple of the Kentucky
games and this one had the most en
ergy at the beginning of the game
that I’ve encountered.
Where was the execution and
toughness on Wednesday? Did the
letters across the blue jerseys in
timidate Carolina or was it the hot
shooting that put a damper or
winning?
It was a combination of all this
and more. The defense that once
dominated has begun to falter. With
Rolando Howell out and the interi
or defense weakened, Kentucky
simply used its outside threats
while Carolina packed it in down
low in the second half. This is a sign
of weakness that will probably spell
doom in the postseason.
Also, Carolina was unable to
force Kentucky to play its game.
When the Wildcats began throwing
up shots with reckless abandon,
USO followed suit. Shots didn’t go
down and Kentucky built a lead,
which is all too obvious. What’s
worrisome is that when this hap
pens in the SEC or NCAA tourna
ments, it can become one-and-done.
Kentucky is just another exam \
pie that if a team brings its >
game, Carolina can’t match it,
therefore playing like the team that
so many picked to finish dead last
in the SEC East. That doesn’t mean
they won’t have success in the tour
naments, just don’t count on them
making a major run this year.
USC.Baseball
Baseball holds off Furman,
prepares for Clemson series
BY JONATHAN HILLYARD
THE GAMECOCK
One state rival down, one to go
this week for the USC baseball
team, which defeated the Furman
Paladins on Wednesday, 7-4.
The win improves Carolina to
10-0 on the season heading into
this weekend’s series with rival
Clemson.
The win was in large part
thanks to a good start, in which
USC scored three runs in the first
inning. Back-to-back singles by
Steven Tolleson and Bryan
Triplett set the stage for Steve
Pearce’s seventh home run of the
season. The three-run homer com
bined with single-run innings in
the second, third, fifth and eighth
innings to bring USC’s run total
to seven.
In addition to Pearce, both
Triplett and Davy Gregg had two
hit outings. RBI’s went to
Tolleson, Triplett, Pearce, Kevin
Melillo and Tommy King. As a
team, the Gamecocks recorded 13
hits, the ninth consecutive game
Carolina has notched 10 or more
hits.
On the mound for the
Gamecocks was Jason Fletcher,
who improved his record to 2-0 by
pitching four scoreless innings
and allowing only two hits to the
Paladin offense. Fletcher record
ed three strikeouts and didn’t
walk a batter until he left the game
with a 5-0 lead. Carolina used six
pitchers, with the first three
recording a two-hit shutout.
Furman rallied in the eighth with
four runs before head coach Ray
Tanner turned to his new ace clos
er, Chad Blackwell, who retired
five consecutive batters to ice the
win for USC.
After 10 games, Tanner has to
be impressed with his team, who
lost key members of its offensive
lineup and pitching staff.
Behind the plate, newcomers
Brendan Winn and Pearce have
been extremely pleasant surpris
es. Winn leads the SEC in batting
average with .567, is third in slug
ging percentage with 1.167 and sec
ond in on-base percentage with
.659. Pearce leads the SEC in home
runs with seven, ranks fifth in bat
ting average with .526, fourth in
slugging percentage with 1.132 and
third in RBIs with 22.
As a team, USC leads the SEC
♦BASEBALL, SEE PAGE 9
PHOTO BY MARK SCHILLING/THE GAMECOCK
Outfielder Davy Gregg slides into the base in action for USC this season. Gregg had two hits and two runs against Furman.
Carolina, Clemson rivalry at its best
This weekend two nationally ranked rivals
will meet to claim bragging rights and try to
position themselves as a national power.
These two teams, and their fans, truly hate
each other and would like nothing better than
to see the other one get
blown out. These two teams
are consistently ranked in
the top 25 and make postsea
son play almost every year.
Duke and North Carolina
meet on the hardwood
Saturday at 9 p.m., but the
game I am referring to will
TRAVIS happen close to seven hours
BOLAND earlier. USC and Clemson
Fourth-year meet on the baseball field
print for a home-and-home series
journalism this weekend.
stuaent -phe USC-Clemson rivalry
was recently recognized by
ESPN as the most underrated college football
rivalry in the country. Unfortunately, that ri
valry has not worked out for the Gamecocks, as
Carolina was blown out at home by its rival.
The men’s basketball teams got together ear
ly in the season with USC taking down the
Timers in Littlejohn Coliseum. That game was
featured on Fox Sports South.
Now both nationally ranked baseball teams
are getting together, and I can’t watch any of
it because the game is sold out and it won’t be
shown on TV.
If there was ever a time to show a game be
tween two teams it would be this weekend. The
bad blood between the two would make for ex
cellent TV.
Just look at the College World Series two
years ago when the two teams met.
Pitches were thrown at batter’s heads, there
were homerun celebrations and the infamous
hat-trick moment for USC’s Michael Campbell.
This is college baseball at its finest, yet no one
seems to care.
Much like the ESPN poll, the USC-Clemson
baseball rivalry has flown under the radar for
too long. This rivalry might not have the glitz
and glamour of a Texas-Rice matchup or
Stanford-Southern Cal, but the two teams have
made leaps and bounds to become two of the
top teams in college baseball.
No longer is this game just a matchup be
tween teams battling for in state players, but
instead it has become a game with national
magnitude. It can affect national rankings and
national recruiting for both teams.
It’s the first game between the two teams
this weekend and some of the new players will
get their first glance at the rivalry, and I hope
they can understand what it means to
Gamecock fans.
The Tigers have won six of the last eight reg
ular season matchups.
This season Carolina fans have reason to
believe that the rivalry might take a dram t
ic turn, as the Tigers are slow out of the gaic
and the Gamecocks are red-hot.
Carolina is scoring in bunches and the Tiger
pitching staff better watch out, because they
don’t show any signs of slowing down. They
might score 38 runs, much like they did against
the Tigers a couple of years ago.
My message to Coach Tanner and the boys
is: score as many runs as you possibly can and
don’t let up. Also, don’t fear Doug Kingsmore
Stadium — it’s just a field and you guys can
win there no matter what all those people up
there say. <